Ereaders and ebooks in libraries

Ereaders and ebooks have a steadily growing role in libraries. When this new
technology rst premiered, many libraries, librarians, and other users were hesitant to
adopt them. However, many users have since discovered their immense value and are
beginning to embrace ebooks and ereaders.
The Electronic Text Center denes the ebook as any full-text electronic
resource designed to be read on a screen, in something other than a web
browser (Gibson and Ruotolo). The Electronic Text Center also notes that ebook
content can be read on a PC, a laptop, a PDA, or a dedicated reading device, in one or
more of a growing number of available formats and software applications (Gibson and
Ruotolo).
One author wrote that there were great predictions about the future of
ebooks (Pace) from librarians, technologists, automation vendors, and even some
publishers (Pace). The same author believes that early negative experiences with
ebookswhether from the empty promises of rich content that never came or from the
hype of e-book devices that dazzled, changed ownership, then withered and died under
nancial mismanagement and greed (Pace)and that some other libraries still plod
along with e-books, persuaded by download statistics and patrons lured to the library by
electronic content (Pace). Since these early predictions and bad experiences, there
has been much improvement and advancement in the world of digital media. And there
will continue to be, as long as there are books being published and people reading
them. There will continue to be better content, better technology, and the realization
that e-books will not replace the printed book, but will most certainly satisfy readers in a
fashion that no longer smacks of technological novelty or fad (Pace).
According to the digital gurus of the 1990s, new library buildingsand
particularly big ones with lots of stacksshould be as pass as new print
books (Crawford). However, cities and colleges continue to build big new libraries and
expand old onesand that print books continue to be an important part of those
libraries (Crawford). In addition to their collections of physical (and digital) books and
more, libraries provide a place for people to meet, study, read, research, play, and nd
answers to their questions (Crawford). This is especially true of college libraries, which
often serve as a campus huboffering a cafe, study rooms, computer access, and
more. Additionally, college libraries probably currently offer the most digital resources
and they continue to serve their community with a local, physical space for other
activities.
The advent of ebooks made the notion of digital libraries possible. The Electronic
Text Center noted that ebooks were a critical development (Gibson and Ruotolo) in
their inception. The Electronic Text Center has many specications for digital libraries:
they must aggregate, preserve, and maintain information; must make this information
readily accessible and useful to a wide and diverse community of patrons, from the
general public to scholars with highly esoteric needs; must do more than respond to
market-driven demands for new methods of content presentation and deliverythey
must anticipate those demands and investigate the implementation of new technologies
as they emerge (Gibson and Ruotolo). The Electronic Text Center believes that the
more attuned libraries are to these technological innovations, the more they will be able
to inuence their development in ways that benet diverse user communities (Gibson
and Ruotolo). One author believes that virtual libraries can not possibly serve as
wholesale replacements for physical libraries (Crawford) and that the term virtual
library may be a misnomer, but digital collections and digitally distributed services have
improved the operations and quality of many, perhaps most libraries. As a monolithic
solution, virtual libraries were and are doomed to failbut that doesnt mean they have
no place (Crawford).
The Electronic Text Center performed several studies and surveys and found
that, from 2000-2002, they had recorded over seven million ebook downloads (Gibson
and Ruotolo). Even though only a small percentage of [their] total collection [was then]
available in proprietary ebook formats (Gibson and Ruotolo) those ebooks [did] account
for a signicant portion of [their] online circulation (Gibson and Ruotolo) in the formats
in which they were available. The Electronic Text Center admits that while [they knew]
that [their] ebooks are being downloaded in great quantity, [they] still have a relatively
poor sense of how they are actually being used (Gibson and Ruotolo)
This seems to be a common problem with ebook statistics, particularly in
academic libraries. Most of studies found that academic users typically search e-books
for discrete bits of information, a behavior summed up by the formula use rather than
read and also show that such use of e-books is typical across disciplines, but that
members of the humanities and social-sciences were on the whole less satised with e-
books than their counterparts in the hard-sciences and business (Staiger). Ebooks and
digital resources have several pros and cons. In several studies, the two main
advantages of e-books cited by library patrons surveyed by the studies were
searchability and around-the-clock availability (Staiger). These were conrmed in
another study that gave readers loaded with the semesters readings to entire classes:
according to the faculty and students, the ebooks combination of easy access and
portability was unquestionably its greatest advantage (Gibson and Ruotolo). The
students who participated in the studies beneted from immediate, round-the-clock
access to all of their materials, some of which were not otherwise readily
available (Gibson and Ruotolo); convenience is of course an important
benet (Gibson and Ruotolo). There were, however, disadvantages to the readers and
digital materials as well. The most often mentioned disadvantages were difculty of
navigation and loss of ability to perform customary research practices such as perusing
and shelf-browsing because of e-books' lack of physicality (Staiger). These
disadvantages were supported in another study: while they proved ideal for reading
short excerpts and for nimble access to specic information, ebooks--at least this
particular implementation of them--were less well suited to other types of
reading (Gibson and Ruotolo). There are additional disadvantages specic to the
technology itself to be considered as well. Eye strain, battery life, and compatibility
issues are all present issues when dealing with ereaders and tablets.
However, when the Electronic Text Center began to format and convert their
books, their early focus on function over formatting probably reected our anticipation
of sophisticated academic users who mine vast quantities of data, extract very specic
information, and then print, export, or repurpose that information (Gibson and Ruotolo).
Because technology has advanced and the use has changed and grown, companies
must reconsider the use of the text: when we reformat our collections for the new
reading technologies, we foresee a new type of user, about whom we are only
beginning to learn. Obviously, we assume that our new ebook users are more focused
on the act of reading (Gibson and Ruotolo). This assumption is correct, of course.
There are more users simply and thoroughly reading ebooks and on ereaders now than
in the past, whether they're reading for pleasure or for an academic purpose. There are,
however, also still users who will read different type of digital resources and some
ebooks purely to extract those bits of information by search.
Ebooks have clearly evolved and will continue to. However, it makes no more
sense to believe that everything that has appeared in book form should appear on
bound pieces of paper than it does to believe all these things should exist only as
displayed on screens (Crawford). One author has had two issues with ebooks since
their introduction: 1. E-books were being touted as monolithic replacements for all print
books, which [he] thought neither likely nor desirable. 2. Specic applications and
specic kinds of e-books were being oversold with little or no regard for drawbacks in
the technology (Crawford). In regard to the rst point, the author believes that issue to
have mostly been resolved. The author mentions that there was the common belief that
a company only had to introduce the right device, and everyone will want to read
everything on itmagazines, newspapers, books will all fade away (Crawford). He
believes that e-books never posed a threat to all print books. They would not and will
not work as a monolithic solution, not only because of technological problems and
reading preferences but because monolithic solutions dont work (Crawford). Of course,
many titles are being offered and converted to digital formats, including extremely old
publicationsbooks, plays, newspapersas well as even more current offerings in the
digital arena.
Ebooks and other similar digital resources have made many changes and
advancements since they were rst introduced. Clearly, ebooks have many advantages
over physical books, especially as more and more people acquire and use more
electronic devices. Ebooks are still fairly early in their existence, and even more so in
use in libraries. Surely, more libraries will begin to offer ebooks and other digital titles to
their patrons in a variety of ways. Despite the bright future ahead for ebooks and
ereaders, they can never really completely replace physical books. Libraries will and
should continue to offer a variety of media to their patrons. After all,

the best libraries have more than one room. The best libraries have more than
one medium. Most real-world problems require more than one solution. Thats life
messy but wonderful (Crawford)




References
1. Crawford, W. (2003). The Crawford Files: Libaries, e-books, and monolithic
solutions. American Libraries, 34 (4). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/
25648715
2. Gibson, M & Ruotolo, C. Beyond the Web: TEI, the digital library and the ebook
revolution. Computers and the Humanities, 37 (1). Retrieved from http://
www.jstor.org/stable/30204879
3. Pace, A. (2004). Technically Speaking: E-Books: Round Two. American Libraries, 35
(8). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30204879
4. Staiger, J. (2012). How E-books Are Used. Reference & User Services Quarterly,
51(4), 355-365